Developmental Psychology Flashcards
developmental psychology
the scientific study of changes or continuities in an organism between initial conception and death
True or False:
Vision begins in the utero.
False
Infants’ vision and color vision is ____ until ____ months of age.
poor; 6
True or False:
The mother’s voice is the most noticeable external stimulus in the womb.
True
Newborns prefer to listen to their ____ voice over any other ____ voice.
mother’s; any other woman’s
Newborns prefer to listen to their ____ native language over ____ language.
mother’s; any other
True or False:
The acoustics of a newborn’s cry is similar to their mother’s native language.
True
True or False:
Infants show preference for foods they were exposed to in utero through amniotic fluid.
True
What did the carrot juice study show?
Grown-up infants exposed to carrot juice in utero had more positive reactions to carrot-juice cereal.
What does the preferential looking paradigm show?
If infants show a preference for striped stimuli over solid color stimuli, they have good visual acuity.
At what age can infants see the 1/64 inch square?
6 months
True or False:
Newborns show preferences for faces.
True
Why do newborns prefer faces of their own race by 3 months?
familiarity drives preference
What three assumptions are infant testing methods based on?
- infants will orient to stimuli they find interesting
- familiarization
- habituation
familiarization
infants prefer to hear/see stimuli that they have heard/seen before
habituation
if the infant has been repeatedly exposed to a stimulus (to the point of boredom) then they should prefer new stimuli
What did the high amplitude sucking procedure study find regarding a baby’s ability to differentiate languages?
When a baby hears English for a long time, their sucking response drops
When a baby starts hearing Spanish, their sucking rate goes up
What did the high amplitude sucking procedure study find regarding a baby’s ability to differentiate languages?
When a baby hears English for a long time, their sucking response drops
When a baby starts hearing Spanish, their sucking rate goes up
dishabituation
infant becomes interested in a new stimulus
What does Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development show?
how and why a child thinks differently from an adult
schema
an organized unit of knowledge that the child uses to try to understand a situation
characteristics of a bird
assimilation
new experiences are readily incorporated into child’s existing theories
an eagle is also a bird
accommodation
theories are modified based on experience
a butterfly is not a bird, so schema needs to be modified
What is the order of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development?
sensorimotor –> pre-operational –> concrete operational –> formal operational
True or False:
Piaget’s theory progresses in a linear fashion and one cannot be in between stages.
True
sensorimotor stage (0-2 years old)
- infants progress from simple reflexes to symbolic processing
- develop an understanding of object permanence around 9 months of age
object permanence
the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible
What did Baillargeon’s violation of expectations study show?
infants can develop object permanence before 9 months of age
pre-operational stage (2-7 years)
children can mentally represent objects and think symbolically
What two concepts do children have difficulty with in the pre-operational stage?
- logical reasoning and problem solving
- Theory of Mind: representing the psychological experiences of others
What two tasks do children have difficulty with in the pre-operational stage?
- conservation
- three mountains task
What are limitations of the conservation task?
- verbally demanding
- asking the same thing twice
- children are more inclined to respond in a way that shows they saw you pour water
What are limitations of the three mountains task?
- spatial abilities
- memory
- verbally demanding
concrete operational stage (7-11 years old)
children pass conservation tasks and can think logically about concrete situations
What three limitations do children have in the concrete operational stage?
- reasoning limited to tangible objects visibly present in front of them
- difficulty with tasks that require mental manipulation
- difficulty with thinking and reasoning hypothetically
formal operational stage (11+ years old)
become capable of flexible and abstract thought
What were some criticisms of Piaget’s theory?
- underestimated children’s abilities
- vague about processes and mechanisms of change
- stage model doesn’t account for variability of performance
- undervalues sociocultural influence
In the utero, sounds are ____ pass-filtered, so infants can only perceive ____ frequencies.
low, low
